Max's picture

Max's picture of jumping in fall leaves

Sammy looked at me all concerned the other day and said, "Mommy, your eye is brokened. How did it get brokened? Did something cut it?...That's okay Mommy, I love you anyway."

Sammy making a funny face

We got so stir crazy in January that we went to the park everyday one week. Phoebe and the boys all had so so much fun! Phoebe just laughed and laughed every time she went down the slide and the boys fought over who got to help her do everything and then they ran around like hooligans :)

Phoebe could do the whole thing herself with me just playing spotter. She's a good climber just like her big brothers were at this age.

over

and over

and over again

Cute Sammy is so very sure of himself. A few weeks ago Mom was over and Sammy was yelling at Max to give him a toy that Max was playing with. We were trying to talk Sammy into asking nicely and my mom said sweetly, "Sammy, have you ever heard that you can catch more bears with honey?" Sammy answered back quick as lighting, "NO! BEARS HATE HONEY!I KILL BEARS!"

Max is getting so mature! The sweet boy is such a peacemaker! He is always negotiating with Sammy so that Sammy will do what is required to get dessert or a prize. Max is so sweet with Phoebe. He always plays with her and helps her get from here to there and he watches her very carefully around the stairs. He is so responsible! He remember s so much of what he needs for school and reminds me about many of the things I need to do. I was so so happy last Sunday he told us that his teacher had told a story in class and while she was talking he felt the Spirit. He has such a strong testimony! As he gets older Max reminds me more and more of Javier and almost especially of his uncle Ivan who was the kindest best soul in the world. They are good men to be like :) I am so proud of my Maxy!

cardboard city. They worked so hard on it and had so much fun! After a few hours it morphed into a boat and the y gave each other and Phoebe rides on it too.

Phoebe is learning so much.We had a little family birthday party for her and Ellie and Olivia on Sunday and I was showing her the cake saying, "This is your birthday cake Phoebe!" Then a few minutes later Dadu was clapping her hands and someone said, "Are you playing pat-a-cake with Dadu?" And Phoebe stopped and turned around and pointed at the cake. It was pretty adorable! Also that same night someone was telling her how pretty her eyes are and she reached out and pointed to James's eye who was standing closest to her. It is so fun to see her learning language!

Phoebe's first time playing with playdough. She learned pretty fast that it tastes gross and then she had fun.

I love this poo icture sweet Max drew of our family!

Sweet moments to remember

I wrote this post back in October and never posted it. But here are some current pictures thrown in.

Sammy- "they wouldn't squish me, I'm made of metal"

































Max- "when we get to Dadu's house he's going to tell us we can't come in and we'll just say, "Yes we can!"

Phoebe- pulling up. so patient and sweet. Loves to share a smoothie with me in the morning. Falls asleep in 2 seconds without tears.

































Max got 20 dollars from grandma for his birthday- he didn't want to go to the toy store to spend it because he wanted to pay his tithing. When I gave him an idea of something he could buy he said "maybe I could buy the r2d2 and sammy could use his money for tithing"

Sammy- He insisted he was not a baby but when Max wanted to be a baby he said-
 "no he's not a baby, just Phoebe and me"

We took a little trip to the ice sculpture festival. It was fun but also exhausting and cold. The pictures are pretty cute the though. The kids loved it!

 Max says he is in love with Ellie- Someone at school asked me if they were twins because they always drive together and they look a little alike. They liked that :)  Sammy says he is also in love with Ellie

Max is so responsible and dependable, he remembers and reminds me about tie dye tuesday, homework, etc. Everytime we get in the car he says, "Mommy don't drive too fast. Just go the speed limit. You can't get another ticket. I am very grateful for the reminders :)

Sammy (tearfully): "I'm not a prince!"
Me: "then what are you"
Sammy: "I'm a human!"

Making caramel apples at Grandma's house last fall. Dadu showing Sammy the tomato plant so he would believe the green tomatoes weren't apples. The Dadu showed how to change the garbage bag and Sammy was so interested in helping him. Max wanted to know how the double boiler works and asking questions. Dadu talked to me for 2 hours and gave me such sweet and profound advice. Dadu adored Phoebe and agreed with all her sweet baby noises and said she was right and grandma and dadu saying over and over again how beautiful and brilliant and perfect she is and her charming little smile. Dadu calling her a little angle over and over and saying how much he loves her

Me studying faith and the elders quorum president coming over and sharing the most perfect message which gave me a feeling of peace and security I hadn't felt since moving into this house.

Max loving sign language so much and working hard for 2 hours cleaning non stop so he could go to the sign language class

Sammy and Max always being so sweet and tuned into their sister. Bringing her toys and playing with her and loving her so much!

CHRISTMAS-Tiiiiiimmmmeeee.....

We made some Chocolates this year with our treats and Phoebe got a hold of one of the left over blocks of solid chocolate. My girl is a chocoholic like her mama. Although, I ate a whole bunch of chocolate and then got the stomach flu over new years so I'm not feeling the chocolate so much anymore.

 I gets its good she also likes other things :)

Max and Sammy both had a truckload of cavities this time so we have been back at the dentist every other week it seems like. When they drilled Sammy bear's teeth the first time they all Ooo-ed and aw-ed about how sweet he was because he just had silent tears rolling down his cheeks and he didn't make any fuss other than that. Both he and Max were very very brave. They were just happy they got to watch star wars mostly I think.

Phoebe loved to eat crayons. Now she is actually starting to color a little bit :) Its fun to see her so mobile that she can get into whatever she wants :)

Sammy Looooooves his shorts. Some days I can't prevail on him to put on pants so he goes around in shorts and snow boots. That's my boy. He knows what he wants.

They were playing a game where they were throwing a grape and then trying to find it in the snow :)

Phoebe and Daddy all dressed up for the Sunday before Christmas. We got a real Christmas tree this year and it smelled to me like childhood. I LOVED it! Javier must be the handsomest man in the world.

Max wrapping his present for his brother which was a car made out of legos. Perfect! Max is the most thoughtful boy! Max also wrote out all the present tags this year since he's a little writer.

Sweet Sammy ripping off the drawing he made for Phoebe for Christmas, then he folded it lots oftimes and put it under the tree. Little sweetie.

It was Sammy's awesome idea to make a Rudolph snowman! We had so much fun!

Christmas Morning

The boys are so into legos now we got them a huge tub off of Craigslist and now that is all they ever do. Just build with legos all day. Phoebe was so cute!

Sammy snuck off to eat some fudge sauce :)